2006-08-30 04:00:00 PDT Sacramento -- Like a lot of voters, 50-year-old Lee Steele of Mountain View is increasingly concerned about the bite health care premiums take out of his paycheck.

But he was especially concerned to learn Tuesday that both of the major party candidates for California governor don't support a bill pending in the Legislature that would create a state-run universal health care system.

"I'm very disappointed -- this is something that they should be paying more attention to," said Steele, who as a contract technical writer has to pay for his health care out of his own pocket.

"The costs are exorbitant," he said. "If things keep going the way they are in 10 or 12 years only the rich will have health care."

The bill, authored by state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, would replace -- if fully implemented -- private health care plans with a statewide program that would cover all Californians.

It would establish a commission that would develop a plan that would be submitted to the governor and the Legislature by 2009, which lawmakers could either adopt or change.

The measure passed the state Assembly on Monday and is expected to be ratified by the Senate before the end of the legislative session Thursday.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has already signaled his opposition to the proposal, saying in a July speech that government should not be the one to take on the management of big programs like a medical care system for the entire state.

Campaign aides for Phil Angelides, the governor's Democratic rival, said the state treasurer neither supports nor opposes the bill.

While most pundits don't see much fallout among voters for either candidate opposing Kuehl's bill, polls show voters do care overall about health care issues.

A key for both campaigns this November is attracting moderate Democrats and independent voters people like Steele who voted against the recall in 2003 but so far are undecided in the upcoming contest between Schwarzenegger and Angelides.

A Field Poll conducted in July found health care was especially important among Democrats and independents.

The poll found voters overall ranked health care third among eight issues facing voters - trailing only illegal immigration and education and tied with economic issues.

Among those voters who said they were supporting Schwarzenegger, health care fell far down the list behind illegal immigration, taxes, education, gas prices and jobs.

But among those who said they were supporting Angelides -- 63 percent of whom are Democrat and 35 percent independents -- health care was the second most important issue, trailing only education.

"I really think that health care should be more important than it probably will be," he said. "I suspect that Schwarzenegger's team probably feels that he's leaned far enough to the left on other issues that he can take a pass on this one.

"But Angelides needs his base, he doesn't have it to the degree that Arnold does," he aid. "You would have thought that Angelides would have been more vocal on this one."

Regalado said that Schwarzenegger has been attacking Angelides for his plans to raise billions of dollars in taxes on the rich and big business and it could be that Angelides is looking for ways to separate himself from the costs that the Kuehl bill would add to that tally.

Some point out that Schwarzenegger's overall record on health care has largely been in opposition to expansion of coverage. The governor vetoed legislation last year that would have expanded coverage to all children in the state and campaigned in 2004 against a proposal that would have required businesses with 50 employees or more to provide health insurance.

Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access, a nonprofit coalition of health care organizations, said rather than his likely veto of the Kuehl bill itself, he believed Schwarzenegger will need to explain to voters his pattern of opposition to expanding coverage.

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"He'll be under more pressure to say what he's for in terms of health care reform," Wright said.

Amanda Crumley, spokeswoman for Angelides, said that the treasurer -- unlike the governor -- supports the concept of universal health care.

"Gov. Schwarzenegger has fronted for big insurance companies and HMOs and has failed on the issue of health care," said Crumley. "Phil Angelides will work to bring people together to provide universal health care."

Although a campaign aide said in June that Angelides supports the Kuehl bill, Crumley said the treasurer has been consistent in his support of only "working toward" universal coverage beginning with coverage for all children and moving to coverage for workers at large employers.

Matt David, spokesman for Schwarzenegger, said Angelides' support for universal health care will prove expensive for taxpayers.

"It's not surprising that with Phil Angelides' long record of supporting tax increase, that his solution to the health care crisis to bigger government and higher taxes," he said.